Irresistible Integrity

Read I Peter 2:11-3:7

“Live such good lives among your unbelieving neighbors that,
though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
(I Peter 2:12)

Thoughts… One of the greatest examples given to us in Scripture of integrity is the Old Testament character, Daniel. Daniel is remembered best for his miraculous deliverance from the lion’s den, but what got him there in the first place was his integrity.

He was a man of such solid character and in disputable integrity that his enemies couldn’t accuse him of any wrongdoing, so they accused him of “right doing”. But God used Daniel’s integrity not only for his deliverance, but to shame his enemies and share his faith with the king of the Persian Empire.

Hopefully your integrity will not get your thrown into a lion’s den—although that does make a powerful testimony. But your integrity will open doors to share your faith with those who otherwise might not be ready to listen to the Good News.

In this verse, Peter says that your unbelieving neighbors will one day have to give glory to God if you live in such a way that your behavior matches what you’ve said you believe. That’s the irresistible power of the life of integrity. But that irresistible power doesn’t stop with just your unbelieving neighbors.

Even a godless society will have to take notice when, collectively, Christians live out what they preach (verses 13-17). So will people in the workplace. When you walk the walk in the marketplace, people who don’t even like you because of your faith will take notice of the God you claim (verses 18-20). And in the home, Christian wives will win their unbelieving husbands not by preaching at them, but by loving them as if they were loving Jesus himself. Likewise, husbands will really impress God if they love their wives as if they were loving Jesus himself (3:1-7).

It goes without saying that we need to be ready to verbalize our witness to unbelievers (3:15), but we will never be effective with our words if we first don’t have the witness of a life that matches them. And even when we are prevented from speaking verbally, there is undeniable and irresistible power just in the integrity of our lives alone.

Our lives are Gospel…or at least they should be! So go forth and do the Good News. Be Jesus—then you’ll have the right to talk about him.

Prayer… Lord, on this day, help me to so live my life that people will see you in me. Help me to be a person of such integrity that through the purity of my being, others will be drawn to you.

One More Thing… “Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.” —Oswald Chambers